1. Field
The present invention relates generally to adaptive methods and devices for enhancing image contrast in the presence of bright background, and more particularly to image contrast enhancing methods and devices for the entire range of endoscopy, and other similar devices used for imaging bright field objects, such as, human tissue, highly reflective semiconductor elements on wafers or MEM structures or the like.
2. Prior Art
The extraction of high contrast images of objects buried in a bright field background, such as those encountered in endoscopy and other similar medical devices and in devices used for imaging micro- or nano-scale objects such as MEMS devices continues to challenge the entire optical imaging industry.
All existing solutions to date are mostly based on processing the digital images that are obtained after optical detection. However, this is a losing battle as the object information, which may have a total energy content of less than 1%, has been lost during optical detection and quantization. Additionally, the other 99% of the energy from the background adds significant shot noise during the optical detection process, further reducing the signal to noise ratio and image contrast.